Scrivener

There is actually a little indie studio working on ANOTHER War of the Worlds film that is supposed to be dead-on faithful to HG Well's book - time period and all. Check Pendragon Pictures for info on that project. Personally, I want to see a modern/near future version with a large cast, as opposed to a single pivotal protagonist. Something like MAGNOLIA but with an alien invasion... where everyone dies in the end. That would be nice.

My best guess was they all died in the crash and are in purgatory or something like it. It's still possible... that psychic wanted Claire to die. What else could the island be about? I don't know... at least I have this weeks episode waiting for me on Tivo. Last new episode until Jan. Carnivale DVD will have to hold me over until then. I think I'm done actively trying to figure out LOST, tho... it makes my head spin. In a good way.

Just finished the game - played through the endgame 3 times to get all the different endings. All were very good and had a certain neat tinge of Matrix-philosophy. I'd play through it again, but I have a ton of other games to work through right now... so maybe when I'm done. In the meantime: 1) Prince of Persia 2 - Awesome new combat system... which is good, as I find myself looking forward to every new battle. The dark themes and characters make for a great desert upon finishing Bloodlines. 2) Battle for Middle Earth - Played a little bit last night and I was really getting into it. Could very well be the best LOTR game on the market. No, let me rephrase that - it most certainly is the best LOTR game on the market. It feels *complete* and believable, unlike those rubbish action games released last year. Nevertheless, I think I'll save this till I'm done with PoP2. 3) Moment of Silence - Just arrived from GoGamer. I LOVED the demo, which really gave me some serious Longest Journey vibes. Saving this one till after school gets out in two weeks. What a great year for games. Too bad we PC gamers have to wait for KOTOR2... but hey, we got plenty else to keep us occupied until Feb.

The new teaser trailer for War of the Worlds is now online at http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/waroftheworlds/ . I must say, it's pretty chilling to watch. Definately has that dark and foreboding feel - which has given a little hope to this man's tortured soul. Spielberg may deliver on this one after all... definately upper-end PG13 material. I still doubt it will come anywhere near touching on my own vision of the property, but it may nevertheless be the dark and sinister movie it needs to be. I think that someday I will still do it. 20 years from now if it needs to be. The book gave me nightmares for weeks as a kid - and the images in my head still scare me today. The trailer is but a tiny glimpse of that terror - and yet, I am VERY glad to have actually seen it; even if Spielberg does wimp out on the rest. I guess we'll have to wait and see... but War of the Worlds has officially skyrocketed to the top of my anticipated movies list. Every director has their dream project - War of the Worlds is mine. Spielbergs war movie experience may help on this - but the war against earth... it's not about military. The martians were at war against HUMANITY - innocent people - we're not even talking nazis - we're talking creatures who land on earth in overwhelming numbers with only one goal: destroy every human without grief, hesitation, or politics. A truely terrifying concept, even to me. Will Spielberg deliver the fear, paranoia, and hopelessness - or will he wimp out and give us another Minority Report? Only time will tell us which he chooses. All I know is that in my version... earth loses. [ 12-20-2004, 10:53 AM: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]

Just watched last weeks episode - man, am I getting wierded out... and that dosn't happen often. I bloody LOVE this show. I have more questions every week, but shoot - Race just said it best. Considering the religious overtones, I'm wondering if we have some kind of OMEN thing going on... like the baby is the antichrist. Argh - but how does it all fit together? And are they dead? Arrrrgh!

I think I am going to start a website dedicated to tracking movies cut for ratings - to help raise awareness and protest this kind of beurocratic BS. Yeah, I've convinced myself. It needs to be done. Let's think, though - what should we name it? P.S. I'm dead friggin serious.

Remember those predictions I've been making for the last two years? They've come true. AICN is reporting that Bob Weinstein, destroyer of cinematic worlds, is planning to cut Tim Burton's latest opus, Cursed (a super-intense Werewolf flick he's planned for years), and cut the R-rated film down to a PG13... without the director's blessing, support, or help. To make matters worse, this news comes just days after the announcement that Weinstein cut the US release of DARKNESS to a PG13. DARKNESS (in it's original R-rated form) has been available on DVD in europe for some time, it's US release delayed because of fears that it's depiction of supernatural violence against children would not be well taken by US audiences. To the studios: STOP RUINING MY GO******D MOVIES YOU POLITCALLY CORRECT STUDIO PRICKS! I WILL *NEVER* SEE ANOTHER PG13 CHOP AGAIN. AND SO HELP ME GOD I WILL STOP AS MANY PEOPLE AS I CAN FROM DOING SO TOO!

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: Did you guys see this yet? How Valve crippled HL2 on nVidia boards I knew it! Those dirty cheating buggers. Purposely crippled their game engine for a fat corporate paycheck. *spits*

I've 'kinda' liked the Blade movies. I'm pretty open about not being an action, fan though - and it seems like the action gets a little out of hand in the Blade films (especially Final Fantasy Blade in the last one). Personally, I'd like more drama, betrayal, and politics. BUt maybe I'm just a sucker (natch) for Anne Rice type storytelling and World of Darkness (Vampire the Masquerade) material. I'll see it, but I'm predicting 7/10 material. Jessica Biel dosn't exactly leave me with high hopes either (she's too 'dainty' to be an action hero - but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. We'll see.

quote: Combat - firearms are practically useless as you'll seldom fight human enemies. The recoil on your weapons is huge unless you've invested a massive amount of points into your firearms skill (and thus neglected skills like Dexterity which not only add to your melee skill, but also to others such as lock picking).Firearms *are* pretty weak, but guns suck against Kindred regardless, that's just a fact (check the PnP sources). Dropping a few points in the skill improves that drastically (a la Deus Ex) but there's no reason to do more than one or two. quote: The level design is horrible! There are frequent design floors such as square rooms, pipes emerging through walls and ending in mid-air, water brushes not touching the edge of walls etc.Havn't seen any of this. Could very well be you're video card - Source is still pretty unrefined. The game saver/loader is bugged, and loops audio for each individual save game it has to load into the list, but again - that's a carryover bug from HL2. quote: There is a game stopping bug around the half way point that can only be solved by manually changing levels via the console. Now, didn't these guys have about a year of waiting where they could have corrected this? Even rudimentary play testing should have picked that one up, seeing as it occurs every time! I admit, this is probably due to Activision as Troika really do want to release a patch for the game. However it only serves to damage the quality of the game further. I just encountered this and I'm a little peeved by it. You'd think a big ol game-stopper like that would have been patched out within hours of the games release... but we all know Activision, like Atari, would rather sit on the patch candidate for 6 months instead of just releasing the damn thing. Since bugs in RPGs are just a fact of the matter, I don't fault the developer if they deliver the patch quickly. Publishers just seem to be pricks about it, though. quote: There's also the fact that they've somehow managed to make the game look fairly hideous despite using the Source engine. Add to this that nearly every step you take causes the game to freeze for a few seconds and well... You get the impression that they didn't really know what they were doing as far the engine goes.Hideous? What game are you playing? I think the graphics are considerably more than adequate. Locations are believable and the atmosphere is great. Not a single complaint out of me (except for the sewers preceeding the Nosferatu's lair). Also never experienced any lag/slowdown issues outside the save/load screen (which, again, was also present in HL2). Only real letdown for me was having to use the console to continue the game. That makes me even more angry because Activision is just sitting on a patch that would instantly fix it.

oh - my - god Alexander is a wretched, abysmal, heinous, contemptible, vile, unpropitious excuse for steamy s#!+stained cinematic trash. The way this movie made me feel can be likened to scene in A Clockwork Orange where Alex is being given the reconditioning treatment - absolute torture. Mere words cannot express my absolute contempt for this... this... loathsome dance of light and shadow which so incongruously violates the screen upon which it is projected. Alexander starts well enough - Anthony Hopkins delivers the narrative as Ptolemy - a historian and one of Alexanders men. We are treated to such a fantastic representation of period Alexandria that we can't help but be drawn in. The acting is superb, the sets and costumes magnificant - the dialogue would make Shakespeare weep. The first act concentrates on Alexanders childhood, and so is very dialogue heavy. It is not so bad as we are constantly learning something new. The climax is reached about an hour in - at the battle of Gaugamela - the single most fantastic representation of an ancient battle ever seen. It's chaotic, and brutal, but expertly and fantastically shot to give you both an idea of the battle from a soldiers point of view and from that of an outside observer, viewing the strategic battle from afar. At this point, we begin to see the makings of a magical perfect-10 kind of classic. But then it all starts to go wrong. Very, very, very wrong. I'm sure that by now you've heard about the films focus on Alexander's sexuality. Everything you've heard has been underexaggerated - on a nearly conspiratorial level. This Alexender is very, very gay - and the film is sure to beat you over the head with this idea frequently and furtively - and for vast extended periods of time. About an hours worth of film can be directly attributed to lovely little homoerotic conversations/scenes between Alexander and his boy toy, Parmenion... and his male Babylonian transvestite who constantly appears, flaunting around suggestively throughout the entire film. Yes, according to this film - men in those days only had wives to propogate the species. The rest of the time they just fooled around with other men. Oliver Stone has taken Ptolemy's historic texts and totally gone off deep end with all kinds of fictitious liberties and wild assumptions. This is not a movie based on history or fact, as it claims to be - it is a self-righteous Hollywood agenda film. But wait, there's more! The film clocks in at about 3 hours - people were leaving by an hour and a half - just after the extreme ammounts of gayness started flying (we're talking gay on the scale of a South Park episode - we're talkng Lemmiwinks, here). The rest of the theatre was either squirming around in their seats, ready to leave, or chuckling uncomfortably. I, myself, would have left on at least a dozen different occassions - only my inclination to give a movie a fair chance to redeem itself stopped me. It's as if Oliver Stone could not throw away a single a second of footage. It all had to go in there - regardless of it's insignificance, redundancy, or quality. This is one of those instances where some SEVERE and DRACONIAN cuts would have resulted in a MUCH better movie (especially if it focused on the nonstop barrage of homosexual dialogue and imagery). Furthermore, the final battle of the film (which would have been otherwise rather spectacular) is shifted into crazy psychedelic colors upon Alexander's injury. The whole thing (all 15 minutes of it) is then played out in neon pinks and oranges. By this point, everyone in the theatre (like Alexander's generals) is just waiting for Alexander to DIE so they can just leave, already. When the credits began to roll, people RAN... yes, RAN to the exits. Others walked in silence. Not a word from anyone. In the lobby, one person could be heard saying "Oh my god. How did this happen?" And no, this time it wasn't me. My friend then turned to me and said, quite withrawn, "i hated that movie." I don't think hate is quite strong enough for me, though. This was not just a bad movie - it was TORTURE. -9/10 P.S. My official "Worst movie of all time." Oliver Stone - I hate you and hope you die a terrible lonely death. I will never see another one of your movies as long as I live.

What? You thought you were gonna get a review? Not yet, it's on the retinue for tomorrow evening. I've been hearing LOTS of mixed things, the kind of things that means I will most likely love the movie. Ie - mostly the inane rhetorical prattle of dim-witted movie critics: "It's too slow." "I don't get it." "Needs moar fighting." "Why are the battles so dusty? I can't see anything!" So who's seen this one already? What did you think?

If you liked the first game, you'll love this. If you loved the first game - this will tickle your pickle in ways you forgot were possible. This is the best vampire fiction outside an Anne Rice novel. Better than any vampire movie or game I have seen (which is all of them). The political intrigue - the characters - the atmosphere - it's fantastic. It's just blowing my mind. It's also terribly refreshing to play a game so unabashedly dark, creepy, and sinister. First time I've been creeped out in - well - I don't remember the last time a game creeped me out. Ok, I'm heading back to the dark and foggy alleyways of Chinatown.

I have seen nary a bug at all (except for the same sound glitches that annoyed me in HL2). Framerates are consistently in the 70s. Load times are short. No broken quests. One dialogue option did incorrectly identify my gender - but other than that - it seems technically squeeky clean. Troika did have a YEAR to polish this, after all - since a contract agreement with Valve forced them to hold on to the game since last November (when it was finished). *shrugs* Not only have I seen nothing to spoil it, but the more I play the better it gets. If the ending pays off, this is potentially a perfect 10 game on my list - and one of the best RPGs in computer gaming history - up there with Fallout and Daggerfall. While it's not as open (environmentally) as Gothic or Morrowind, there's still LOTS of room to explore - enough that you are constantly seeing something new and never get bored. The first Vampire game is trash compared to this. If anyone is complaining about problems it's either due to their crappy computer or general stupidity... as I havn't seen anything that would qualify as being more serious than an overlooked detail (ONE improper gender reference, for example). As GameSpy states in their review "Taken purely as an RPG, Bloodlines is almost flawless." This is truth - the only weaknesses are the same ones shared by Half Life 2, compliments of the not-quite-perfected Source Engine. If you like, provide a link to said negative press, so that I can systematically debunk every absurd and baseless claim and lay your fears to rest. I'm the kind of person who picks every nit, and I have seen VERY few nits thus far.

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Cmdr: He probably only likes it because of the gratuitous gore. Not saying it may not be a good game though; just warning you that Scriv's tastes are all over the map. lol! That last bit is SO true. But no - it's not really very gory... not much more than Half Life 2, really. If I had my way, it'd be WAY worse. I was dissapointed when I saw the animation for the Fire Axe sneak kill - I was hoping to see that axe get planted firmly in that punks head - but my character instead used it like a baseball bat. Oh well, still a fan-freaking-tastic game.

Ok, so after the epic dissapointment that was the "ending" of Half Life 2, I decided to try that other Source-Engine-based game - Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines. Boy howdy what a way to wash away the dissapointment. My friends - I am here to tell you that this is not only great - it is CLASSIC material. And when I say Classic, I mean in the same ranks as Fallout, Torment, and Deus Ex. It's THAT good. The best comparison I can probably make is that it's like a dark, sadistic, vampiric version of the original Deus Ex. Indeed, it could even be that game's spiritual sequel. So here's how it works: you create your own character - choosing from a number of Vampiric bloodlines (all with unique 'powers', agendas, and quirks their own). As you complete quests you gain points which can be spent on improving whatever you wish. Now you get XP for completing objectives (there can be several for any given quest; both optional and mandatory) - not killing stuff - so this encourages you to solve problems any way you see fit. Sure, you can leave a trail of mangled bodies in your wake if it suits you - but you get just as much experience for sneaking or talking your way through. That is, you can play a politician just as easily as a bloodthirsty killer. Finally! I'm 30 hours into the game so far and the end is nowhere in sight. Furthermore, every problem the game has thrown at me has had several possible solutions (some obvious, some not). I'm also noticing decisions made early in the game are starting to have far reaching consequences later in the game - this is one game you will DEFINATELY be able to play through multiple times. All in all, Vampire has me obsessed with it in a way that Half Life 2 never even aspired to. I havn't even mentioned the characters. They are so rich and full of personality that I almost believe they are real - I am worried that when the game is over I'll feel like I have lost some friends... ...and the freedom! It's nice not being forced down an alleyway from point A to B. Bloolines lets you choose what quests you take, how you solve them, and in what order. If Half Life 2 is the best game ever, then what does that make this, much better, game? Preliminary: 9.5/10 The only downside is that it has the same sound problems that plagued Half Life 2. Must be the Source Engine. That is, it dosn't handle EAX or 5.1 audio very well. You can just forget about using both.

quote:Originally posted by Hellbinder: Ok finished the Game.. i wont post spoilers but i will say that the ending was a GIANT HUGE MAMOTH LET DOWN for me. In fact it put a smear on the whole game as far as i am concerned. It becomes obvious (to me)that at least 1/3 of this game was just tossed out and book-ends were put on a series of scripted leves just to get the game out the door. Major dissapointment. You are absolutely positively 100% right. I was screaming like a madman for 30 minutes after the game ended. I also found myself wishing there were more dramatic sequences. Also the least interesting levels are the ones that seem to go on the longest - and the 'defend yourself' bits were frustrating as hell. Altogether I'd give the game a 7/10. I'd really like to give it higher, but there's too much frustration there to overlook. Not to mention the fact that the Source Engine has some very buggy audio/sound (The Engine itself, not the game). But again, that has to be one of the WORST and most deliberately outrageous endings EVER in the history of gaming - it truely rivals Eye of the Beholder. From what I hear, they are planning on both free and premium episodic content to continue the franchise - available through Steam, of course. Sounds like they gave us half a game on purpose.

If you watch Ebert & Roeper, then you already know how I feel about this movie. I should know better than to see a movie with Nicholas Cage in it, but Adaptation left me with the idea that he could yet be in movies that didn't totally suck. Maybe I was wrong =( 4/10 P.S. Totally pointless action flick - like Indiana Jones for kids or DaVinci Code for highschool history dropouts. IMO, I don't like it when the filmakers assume I'm stupid. But yeah, it is better than Tomb Raider.

I wasn't gonna see this on account of the PG13 (I know they were showing around an R rated cut to preview audiences) but movies and me - we're like peanut butter and glue - both things you dont want to get stuck all over you.* So yeah, I saw it anyway. IMO it's actually a little better than the Japanese flick (Ju-On) on which it is based. In JuOn the special effects were hokey and ridiculous, but well-meant. Here, they're all done with that tad something extra (lots of CG) that gives it that little extra creep. Was it scary? I guess if you thought The Ring was scary, then sure. It's way better than that piece of mass-market 'horror' trash. Thing is, I don't scare easy - and when a movie hits a nerve and freaks me out, it's something really special (House of 1000 Corpses). Now, this dosn't come anywhere close to that caliber of freakyness - but it's a very very good haunted house movie. Easily the best since Poltergeist. Fortunately the story is very similar to the asian version and Sarah Michelle Gellar dosn't have a terrible lot of screen time (why did they sell her with the movie so much?) - it actually focuses around several characters and their experiences in the house. What's the biggest problem? Same stuff that plagues every friggin wannabe-horror movie ever made - too much exposition at the end. You give the audience too many details and mystery dissapears - and so does the fear. It's just bad form as it's targetted at the stupidest people - the ones who hate the movie if everything isn't handed to them on a silver platter. *shrugs* So, yeah, it's worth seeing. 7/10 *This analogy makes no sense on purpose. It's supposed to be ironically funny.

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES!!! I got that Sony job!!!! W00t!!! YEAH!!!! That, and the two Pepperoni pizzas I'm about to order from Round Table to celebrate.

Have any of you heard the speculation that Halo 3 may be released as early as Feb 9? Apparently when you beat the game in Legendary - at the end of the credits is a single line of text reading "Coming February 9th" Many people are saying that, if this IS a Halo 3 hint - that it could mean Feb 9, 2006. However, I find that unlikely and here's why: 1) The date is too precise. With more than a year before Feb 9th, such an exact date is unreasonable. After what happened to HL2 - no developer in their right mind would make that kind of specific announcement so far ahead of release. 2) Halo 2 is short. Less than 10 hours short. For all the hubub that just dosn't seem like quite enough. I think Bungie is pulling a Kill Bill on us. That is - they cut the game in half, focusing on completing only the first half and shipping that. If it's true, then the rest of the game is already near-complete - which, if it clocks in with the same ammount of gameplay, can be released as it's own complete game - just in time to get snagged by people completing their new Halo 2 Christmas gifts. Then there's the matter that the soundtrack (listed Vol. 1) has all the music from Halo 2 already. Bungie are their bizarre mind-games... Anyhoo, that's what I think.

quote:Originally posted by LostInSpace: quote:Originally posted by Scrivener: Scroll to the bottom of the page and check the Coming Soon section. There's a link for HL2 SE DVD. CLick on it. Umm, don't know if it's just me but when I click on the HL2 DVD I get some other game "Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events". I tried the other links there in coming soon and they are fine. ...humour through irony...

Yeah, apparently the unlockers are bogus. From what I've been reading it's the bastards at Vivendi blocking the activation. As far as I'm concerned they have no right to prevent you from using software you purchased - before street date or not. That's the retailers problem, not the consumers. Currently browsing forums for possible class action lawsuits (maybe get a free game in the end). Well, that and trying to get to Lvl 15 with my Sorcerer on Unrest In any case - my whole planned Half Life 2 weekend is bunk. Since I work 35 hours this week - including the 16th and 17th - I'm gonna have to do without. That sucks. Apparently Sony has some 'news' for me tomorrow. Since I got word secondhand through my bro, I can't assume good or bad. If you've been following my adventures in employment, I am really hoping and praying that it is good news. I don't know what I'd do if I have to spend Christmas at Best Buy. EDIT: Now for some HL2 comedy: Vivendi Spokesman on HL2 Scroll to the bottom of the page and check the Coming Soon section. There's a link for HL2 SE DVD. CLick on it. [ 11-15-2004, 01:29 AM: Message edited by: Scrivener ]

And have you manually set your Virtual Memory? You'd be surprised at the performance increase you get by NOT letting Windows manage it for you.

Yeah, that's true. The game installs itself as a STEAM Preload. You can't just play the game. I checked the box and it DOES say "Internet Connection Required". So yeah, I'm pretty p!$$3ed off right now. At least I got EQ2 to keep me busy. There are unlockers available - I'm gonna try to get one of those.